![]() Hydrates form when gases such as methane mix with water under high pressure and cold temperatures. Men in red jumpsuits and white hardhats could be seen on the deck using enormous wrench-like tools to turn dials on pipes that were dousing the blowout preventer with warm seawater to speed up the melting. ![]() Marvin Morrison, BP's wellsite leader aboard the Q4000, said workers aren't just waiting for the hydrates to melt normally. Before the stop, it had been painstakingly raised at a rate of about 450 feet to 500 feet per hour. It was not an unexpected delay, Hilton said. The device would be lifted the final 500 feet to the surface once it was assured the hydrates had dissipated. The AP was the only news outlet with a print reporter and photographer on board the ship. "We don't want to lift it and risk an uncontrolled release of gas because that's inherently dangerous," Darin Hilton, the captain of the Helix Q4000 vessel that's raising the device with a giant crane, told The Associated Press. Crews must take care not to damage the device, which is considered a key piece of evidence in the spill investigation. ![]() ![]() The hydrates - which caused the oil giant problems when the company was trying to contain the oil spilling into the Gulf - need to melt because they are combustible. ON THE GULF OF MEXICO (AP) - Icelike crystals had formed Saturday on the 300-ton blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, forcing BP crews to wait before they could safely hoist the device to the surface.
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